Allentown, New Jersey – Kim Severson of Keene, Virginia and Winsome Adante are ranked #2 in the world and at yesterday’s one day competition at the Horse Park of New Jersey in the Final Mandatory Outing they looked very deserving of that ranking. As they did at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in April, the only four star event in the United States, Severson and “Dan” grabbed the early lead in the dressage and never gave it up. Their final score was 40.2. They had a clean cross country round.

The one day competition was the final phase of the selection process for the 2004 Olympic Eventing Team and consisted of dressage in the morning at 10:00 am, a short cross country course this afternoon beginning at 3:00 pm, and show jumping under the lights at 9:00 pm. The outing was described by US Coach Captain Mark Phillips as “not a selection trial but a selection outing,” the scores consisted of the dressage test and stadium jumping scores only, cross country scores were not counted toward the final score. Riders received coaching and training tips throughout the competition from Jessica Ransehousen, Chef d’Equipe for the US Dressage Team; the legendary George Morris, who provides additional training to the team in show jumping; and from Mark Phillips.

“I’m thrilled today, right this second,” said Severson, “but there’s three more weeks,” she added, referring to the Olympic Games in Athens.

John Williams of Middleburg, Virginia on Carrick was second with 43.2; Amy Tryon of Duval, Washington on Poggio II was third with 45.6; Julie Richards of Atlanta, Georgia on Jacob Two Two was fourth with 55.2. Both Williams and Severson knocked down one rail in the show jumping phase of the competition, which proved to be rather difficult for many riders. There was only one clean round for both time and jumping faults and that was posted by Julie Richards. The jumping competition was held under the lights to simulate what the riders will experience in Athens. The rails at the long-strided triple combination seemed to be the nemesis of many riders as they came off a turn in the tight arena, looking into a crowd seated fairly close to the rail. Several riders cited that the long day of competition for both them and their horses contributed to rails down in the show jumping.

New Jersey was pounded by torrential rain on Monday, the day before the competition, with as much as 17 inches in some locations, but the Horse Park of New Jersey managed to escape the heaviest downpours. Although the footing was slick on the cross country course, it was still quite manageable. The course provided challenging obstacles most notably the water jump consisting of four elements and the “coffin,” a combination of three big elements. John Williams observed, “the course Mark (Phillips) did for us was shorter. They all needed a run, they haven’t been out since April,” referring to the last major event, the Rolex Event in Lexington, Kentucky.

After the competition was completed David O’Connor, the individual gold medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, thought the potential of the Athens team is good, “this is a very strong group of horses, a very strong group of people. Everybody’s got good technique, everybody has experience. Whoever the top five are, if they get together as a cohesive group, that will be the difference. You’ve got two of the top four horses in the world here, who wouldn’t want to have Winsome Adante and Carrick on their team?”

About the competition in Athens Coach Captain Mark Phillips said, “on paper the French and British have the strongest chance, but at the Olympics you have to show up and shape up. If we go and do our business we’ll be competitive.”

Horses will be examined by veterinarians on Wednesday and Thursday. The team of five, plus an alternate, will be announced late Friday afternoon. On Sunday, the team, the alternate, plus four other horse and rider combinations will leave for England to train until August 10th, when they will ship to Athens.